How many Tagalog words come from Spanish?

Estimates put roughly a fifth of everyday Tagalog vocabulary at Spanish origin, the result of more than three centuries of Spanish rule. It is by far the largest single source of loanwords in the language.

How does the tool detect a loanword?

It matches each word against a curated dictionary of well-documented Spanish loanwords in Tagalog, including Filipinised spellings such as kuwarto from cuarto and silya from silla. It does not guess from spelling alone.

Why are some spellings changed from Spanish?

Tagalog respelt many Spanish words phonetically, so cuchara became kutsara and ventana became bintana. The tool stores these Filipinised forms so it can match them in real text.

Does it detect Spanish numbers and days?

Yes. Many Tagalog speakers use Spanish-derived numbers (uno, dos, tres) and the days and months, several of which appear in the dictionary.

Does my text leave the browser?

No. The text is matched against the built-in list locally. Nothing is uploaded or stored.

What is the Tagalog Spanish Loanword Detector?

Highlights Spanish loanwords in Tagalog and Filipino text such as mesa, silla, ventana and kumain, drawn from the single largest category of borrowed words in the Filipino language. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Tagalog Spanish Loanword Detector

Name: Tagalog Spanish Loanword Detector
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

When Spain governed the Philippines for over three centuries, it left a permanent mark on the language. Today roughly a fifth of everyday Tagalog vocabulary is Spanish in origin — from household objects like mesa (table) and silya (chair) to verbs like kumain and time words like the days and months. This tool scans your Tagalog or Filipino text and highlights those Spanish loanwords, showing the likely Spanish source for each.

The scale and character of the Spanish influence

The Spanish colonial period lasted from 1565 to 1898, and the imprint on Tagalog vocabulary is deep and across many domains:

Household objects: mesa (table), silya (chair), bintana (window), pinto (door), kutsilyo (knife), kutsara (spoon), plato (plate), baso (glass).
Time and calendar: Lunes–Biyernes, Sabado, Linggo; Enero–Disyembre; oras (hour), minuto.
Religion and ceremony: Diyos (God), simbahan (church), misa (mass), pari (priest), anghel (angel), kruz (cross).
Body and health: duktor (doctor), ospital (hospital), medisina.
Numbers (Spanish-derived set): uno, dos, tres… used in time, money, and sports.
Verbs adapted with Tagalog affixes: mag-estudyo (to study), magluto (from Spanish luto).

This breadth — from everyday objects to deep cultural vocabulary — is why a high Spanish-loanword count in any Tagalog passage is entirely unremarkable.

How it works

The detector tokenises your text and looks each word up (case-insensitively) in a curated dictionary of documented Spanish loanwords. Crucially, the dictionary stores the Filipinised spellings that Tagalog actually uses, because many borrowings were respelt phonetically:

silya   ← silla (chair)      mesa     ← mesa (table)
bintana ← ventana (window)   kutsara  ← cuchara (spoon)
kuwarto ← cuarto (room)      relos    ← reloj (watch)
sapatos ← zapatos (shoes)    eskwela  ← escuela (school)
pinto   ← puerta (door)      kandila  ← candela (candle)

The Filipinisation follows regular phonological patterns: Spanish ue → o (puerta → pinto), ll → ly or y (silla → silya), v → b (ventana → bintana), final -j dropped or changed (reloj → relos). Knowing these patterns helps you identify probable loanwords even when they’re not in the dictionary.

Each detected word is reported with its Spanish source and how often it appears, so you can see how heavily a passage leans on Spanish-derived vocabulary.

Worked example

Paste May mesa at silya sa kuwarto. Nag-aaral siya ng medisina sa eskwela. and the tool flags:

mesa ← mesa (table)
silya ← silla (chair)
kuwarto ← cuarto (room)
medisina ← medicina
eskwela ← escuela (school)

The native Tagalog words (may, at, sa, nag-aaral, siya, ng) pass through without a flag, showing the precise boundary between borrowed and native vocabulary.

Because Tagalog absorbed Spanish so thoroughly, these words are full members of the language, not foreign intrusions. Use the tool to study borrowing patterns, build vocabulary lists, or trace the Spanish roots of words you use every day. The dictionary focuses on common, well-attested loans — rarer or very recent borrowings may not appear, and nothing you paste is uploaded.